Time Warp

It’s 10pm, and I can hear the rain tapping against our tin roof. Normally I find it soothing, but tonight it’s not helping. My daughter announced at 8.30pm that she needed her sports top for tomorrow but it’s in the wash. So the machine has just finished and without any chance to let it dry outside - and with no dryer in the house - I am sitting on the lid of the toilet, holding a hairdryer up against the top.

I’d liked to have used this drying time for myself, to relax, but instead I’m thinking about the massive project that a client just emailed me and wants done in two and a half days. She emailed it to me at 9.30pm. There’s at least 30 hours of work in it and I don’t think it's humanly possible. I have a number of other things scheduled over the next two days including a meeting with my bank manager that I have already postponed three times. I truly felt efficient at the start of today but by 10pm, I don’t have time to spell the word.

I wonder how we manage our time. It seems that even if you try and be timely, it only takes someone else to be in a panic about something and if you’re needed, then you’ll find yourself sucked into their vacuum rush, racing around their hamster wheel!

At 10.30pm, the sports top is almost done and I wonder why don’t they make it out of something drip dry?

Our time and how we chose to spend it is very important. We all need the money but at what expense (pardon the pun)? I realise I am no longer willing to trade my health, my friendships or my time with my child for the next buck, no matter how much I need it. As they say, you can’t take it with you.

It's now 11pm. I run a hot bath. I put lavender oil and bath salts in and I soak. I soak for a long time. I know my computer is whirring somewhere in the other room, but I switch off. Others tried to overload me, but I walked the other way. Sometimes we need to take a step back in order to step forward.

Worrying only uses up time; a better use of it is to run a bath.